Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

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American Ambassador Visits Menorah Center in Dnipropetrovsk

As part of his trip to the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk, Ambassador of USA to Ukraine John Tefft visited the central city Golden Rose synagogue, reported Dnepr.comments.

The American ambassador met with Chief Rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk Shmuel Kaminetskyi and the leaders and active members of the Jewish community.

The ambassador and the delegation looked around the synagogue and attended a morning prayer in its main prayer hall. Then, John Tefft with the leaders of the Jewish community of Great Boston visited the construction site of the world’s largest Menorah Jewish Center.